We seldom find people ungrateful so long as you are in a condition to serve them. The best government is that in which the law speaks instead of the lawyer. Truth is as impossible to be soiled by an outward touch as the sunbeam.-Milton. Commentators too often write on books as men with diamonds write on glass, obscuring light with scratches. A ship ought not to be fixed by a single anchor, nor life upon a single hope. If you employ your money in doing good, you put it out at the best interest. "Men are mortal gods," said an ancient writer, "but gods are immortal men." Before an affliction is digested, consolation ever comes too soon; and after it is digested, it comes too late.—Sterne. As a tree that is heavily laden with fruit breaks its own boughs, so men, by their own greatness, destroy themselves. Time, with all its celerity, moves slowly on to him whose whole employment is to watch its flight.—Johnson. When Hofer was led to be shot, he was asked to kneel, but he replied, "I have always stood upright in the presence of my Creator, and in that posture I will give up my spirit to him." Those men who destroy a healthful constitution of body by intemperance, as manifestly kill themselves as those who hang, or poison, or drown themselves.-Sherlock. Moral Lesson. If thou wilt mighty be, flee from the rage From the foul yoke of sensual bondage. For though thy empire stretch to Indian sea, If to be noble and high thy mind be moved, Consider well thy ground and thy beginning; For he that hath each star in heaven fixed, And gives the moon her horns and her eclipsing, So that wretched no way thou may be, Except foul lust and vice do conquer thee. Morality. Sir T. Wyatt, 1530. The world was given us for our edification, not for the purpose of raising sumptuous buildings; life for the discharge of moral and religious duties, not for pleasurable indulgences; wealth to be liberally bestowed, not avariciously hoarded; and learning to produce good actions, not empty disputes.-Arabian Author. Morning. But who the melodies of morn can tell? High life of a hunter! he meets on the hill It was the lark, the herald of the morn, With quickened step Shakespere. Brown night retires: young day pours in apace, And opens all the lawny prospect wide. The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top Blue, through the dusk, the smoking currents shine; Limps awkward; while along the forest glade The wild deer trip, and often turning, gaze The native voice of undissembled joy ; And thick around the woodland hymns arise. His flock, to taste the verdure of the morn.-Thomson. — The sweetness of the morning is perhaps its least charm. It is the renewed vigour which it implants on all around that affects us-man, animals, birds, plants, vegetation, flowers. Refreshed and soothed with sleep, man opens his heart; he is alive to nature and to nature's God, and his mind is more intelligent, because more fresh. He seems to drink of the dew like the flowers, and feel the same reviving effect. Mother's Love. What is so pure, so good, so fair, so like the realms above, Was e'er bestow'd more beautiful, more eloquently dear? It is a love that wearies not, through scenes of bliss and fame, Or when oppress'd by cares of life, by sorrow, or by shame. It is a love, the heavenly saints may worship and revere, When o'er the sorrows of the earth they shed their pitying tear. A mother's love can ne'er decay, when all the world beside Look on with cold, contemptuous glance, to pity or deride; It is a love the grave alone-the cold, cold grave can close, When, wearied with the cares of earth, at length we seek repose. Others may love-but, ah! that love it never can compare: With them some earthly passion prompts, some selfish thoughts are there; A mother's love is ever pure, it emanates from heaven; Muddle. F. B. C. Muddle is descended from the ancient but dishonourable family of Chaos; she is the child of Indifference and Want of Principle; educated by Dawdling, Hurry, Stupidity, Obstinacy, Meanness, and Extravagance; secretly united at an early age to Self-Conceit; and parent of Procrastination, Falsehood, Dirt, Waste, Disorder, Destruction, and Desolation.-Home Truths. See COMFORT. Murderer (The). A murderer! whom all shun-who preys on The walls of flesh, and steals away the life. A self-will'd piece of dust, that dares to take The thunderbolt in its weak hand, and Launch it where it lists.-Tomlins. - Innocent blood, E'en like the blood of sacrificing Abel, Cries from the tongueless caverns of the earth, Music. An art which strengthens the bonds of civilized society, humanizes and softens the feelings and dispositions of man, produces a refined pleasure in the mind, and tends to raise up in the soul emotions of an exalted nature.—Brougham. There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim : Such harmony is in immortal souls ; But while this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it.-Shakespere. Is it not sweet, when music's melting tone Now with the whispering breeze the murmurs die, Each wooded hill the trembling notes prolong, Swells the rich strain-though distant, ever clear, The softest cadence of Æolian lyre. Scarce breathe the lips-scarce dare the bosom swell,— Cochrane. The winds caught and tamed.-The language of heaven imperfectly lisped on earth.--Creation's gratitude to God, finding utterance. Mutes. Solemn funeral performers, who mimic sorrow when the heart's not sad.-Madden. |